2010-07-25: Bugs In the Danger Room? Never
Summary: The Summers brother and Nocturne run a Danger Room scenario, and a secret is revealed Participants: Cyclops, Havok, Nocturne Location: The Danger Room Rating: PG-13 for Violence and Mild Language Scott isn't the best with computers. Still, he has fairly extensive training on the Danger Room console and he knows the program he wants to run, so a few minor adustments and he'll be ready to go. Already dressed in his combat attire, black suit with matching hood. He had come down earlier with TJ, as well as inform Alex to join him for some practice as well as meeting the newest addition to the student body. After finalizing his computer input, Scott makes his way down, knocking on the door of the women's dressing area. "Ms. Wagner, find something to your liking?" he asks before backing away and leaning against the far wall, arms crossed over his chest. "You people, and your uniforms," complains TJ, though good-naturedly. She's wearing a golden one-piece that is clearly designed for the female body and to not only give freedom of movement, but comfort -- and perhaps a little exposure, as well. It's a slick one-piece, with small sleeves, and whose 'legs' only go so far as to be kindly coined 'short-shorts'. Otherwise, her arms and legs - feet, and hands, are completely bare. "It'll work. For now," she decides. Alex Summers appears to have already made use of the "costume shop." Looks like he's ditched the "Egyptian Eggbeater" look for something a little more sleek. He's still working on the last little adjustments as he steps up alongside Scott, grinning just a touch, "Kinda figured you'd have me in the Danger Room in less than 24 hours." He glances past Scott to Talia and waves, "Nice to see you again, TJ." Scott looks over to TJ and nods his head. "Functional," he offers. "And we practice in combat dress because that allows us full familiarity of how it be like in the actual field." He turns his head as the door opens, giving his brother a grin. "Has it already been 24 hours? I'm falling behind. Never can have too much practice," he jokes, pushing himself off the wall. He nearly starts the introductions when Alex recognize TJ. "Oh...you two have met," he says, sounding almost a littel disappointed. "In that case, we should get to work." He walks towards the main door of the Danger Room, entering the key-entry code quickly as the round doors slide open, revealing the room that is currently large, chrome and empty. "Yeah, I met your cute brother earlier, when he arrived. Jean introduced me to him." She grins, impishly. "He looked like a space pirate, I once knew. Kinda threw me off, for a minute." She walks into the danger room, peeking about, "Ah. Now. I have some great memories, of this place. Dad used to take me through here all the time, when I was little, teleporting around." "Hear that? I'm the "cute" one." Alex chides Scott lightly, before glancing to TJ again, "Space Pirate? Now that's a new one..." Alex comments, still looking a little bemused as they enter the as-yet bare Danger Room. "I shudder to think what you might have cooked up for us, Bro." Alex glances about, cracking his knuckles and well...waiting. "Cute?" Scott mimics, giving Alex a quick tell-me-you're-not-encouraging-this look, only to get his response shortly after. Sighing slightly, he just shakes his head and looks around the room. "Space pirate? Professor said that infinite possibilties yield unlikely results...but that seems pretty far out there." He shakes his head before speaking up. "Computer. Run program 528." A small click and whirl later, and the Danger Room is firing up. A few seconds later, the three are no longer standing in an empty room, but rather in the center of New York City, on a very bad day. Buildings in any direction are in disarray with a one in particular nearby seeming to be on fire. "Alright, here's your mission. We have a person of interest in there," Cyclops says, of course indicating the burning inferno behind him. "We have precisely 15 minutes until the whole thing collapses, and five stories to get up. In addition, there are armed men trained to stop us. We are to get up the building, using nonlethal force, and retrieve the POI. As I helped design this scenario, I am biased as field leader." He turns his attention towards his brother. "So...what's the plan, boss?" TJ only grins, wide, showing how just bright her teeth are, against that impossible azure skin of hers. She, too, tilts her head much in the same manner as Kurt would, and regards Alex, as if waiting for instructions. A comfortable niche, for her. She's not too keen on the responsibility of leadership, or giving orders - unless it comes down to it. Alex blinks a moment at Scott's sudden delegation of responsibility, but it's only a half-moment before the "Summers Gene" kicks in, "All right, TJ, I need the ten-second version of what you're capable of. Cyclops, you're the lookout man for our armed opposition. Give us covering fire while we move. Like you said, nonlethal force." Of course that doesn't mean they can't -hurt- them. Before he plots any further, he looks to TJ for any pertinent info on what her abilities may be. Cyclops nods his head before silently making his way towards the doorway into the burning building. He presses himself up against the side of the door, waiting for the mark to be given while he silently starts counting down the time they have left and cheats, just a bit, by calculating the most efficent way to take down the goons that are directly on the other side of the door. "I was trained by my dad, and Uncle Logan, on how to fight," rattles off Talia, smoothly, "And I can focus energy from dad's dimension, like this." In her hand, there is a sudden red-flash of concentrated energy, that blasts a hole in the pavement just a few feet away. With that release of energy, comes the familiar and slightly sickening smell (which doesn't seem to bother Talia) of brimstone that oft follows Nightcrawler's teleporting. "Can move and fight like Dad," which means she can likely scale up the building without much problem, "And -," she pauses - this latter, to date, she's only told Charles. "I can possess people. But, I don't like doing it." "All right. Well, hopefully we won't need any possession today. Cyclops and I will run interference on the inside of the building and try to draw the attention of the bad guys while you sneak your way up the outside to the fifth floor and try to find our target. If you find him or her yourself, let us know on the comms and go ahead and hightail it out of here. Otherwise we'll rendezvous on the fifth floor." Splitting up may be a little risky, but you've gotta trust your people to do their thing. Instructions given, Alex nods to Scott, and commences with the breaching, handling the destruction off the doorway with a quick burst of plasma, hopefully leaving it open for Scott to have a clear shot at any opposition within. Cyclops twists his head as he hears about possesion, frowning deeply at that, for a myriad of reasons. "You won't be able to do that in here," he informs her, "even if you did want to. Didn't know about that, so the program isn't prepared to take advantage of that ability." He sounds rather cross about being left out of the loop, but he nods to Alex and braces himself for the breach. After the door is knocked off, Scott makes his way inside, shooting off one quick blast before noticing...the room is empty. More frowning. There should be five thugs with semi-automatics in here, not nothing. "This room is..." he starts, but realizes that knowing the program isn't responding correctly will change Alex's judgement, "clear. Rooms clear, moving up to the second level, cover my back." Hard to take the leader out of Scott Summers, especially when he's not sure what's going on. If Nocturne slinks up the side of the building like Alex suggested, she'll find the trip up pretty uneventful, though about a story up muffled cries, presumably of the POI, are somewhat audible over the burning rage of the rest of the building, as well as a second voice chuckling sinisterly. Both male. True to her word, Nocturne is every bit as deft, and flexible, spry, and acrobatic as her father, as she climbs, jumps, slinks, up the side of the building in a manner that almost seems effortless and would make most gymnists and atheletes jealous. A few stories really isn't that high a climb for her, especially with so much architechual foundation, sills, and other designs in the building for her to utilize. She does not, however, announce her presence towards the cries of the POI - or the other voices she hears. As she nears the top of the building, she slows her ascent, taking the time - and advantage of her stealthy nature, to assess just what is going on up here. Alex moves pretty quickly towards the next door, repeating the process in-turn as he and Scott make their way towards the stairwell. Fire isn't too much of an impediment towards Alex, but smoke can definitely be a problem. Still, not a whole lot they can do about it right now except move quickly and try to stay low. "Not seeing any sign of the bad guys yet." Alex notes over the comm, getting a little wary that they're about to be set up for a serious ambush. The feeling is mutual, as Scott squints and looks around, paying more attention to the shadows around him that he expected to, vision darting this way and that. "Same here, no targets on my radar. Nocturne, you got anything?" As Nocturne continues to climb, the voices become more clear, or at least, more seperate. One voice is clearly bound and gagged, the sound of flailing about visible. The second voice coninues to laugh for a bit before tsking. "Silly pup, flailing around like that will help you. Wouldn't worry too much, though. Soon enough, this whole taco stand will be coming down around your head, taking both of us with it. Well, you at least. I'll probably be just fine," and then more laughter. At this point, the voice unmistakable, dark and sinister across nearly any universe or reality. The voice of the man known as Victor Creed. Uncle Victor? Maybe in some reality. Nocturne certainly can't stand toe-to-toe with Creed, but what she can do, is annoy the hell out of him, and probably stay out of his reach long enough for one of the explosively charged brothers to kick some serious tail. Speaking of tails, she keeps hers retracted, for now. And instead, vaults up onto the AC unit on the building, pelting Creed with two powerfully charged Hex Bolts, while taunting, "Man, even in /this/ reality, you have the aboslutely /worst/ dialouge. Seriously. I think Sam Raimi could write better one-liners, than that." She taps her communicator, then. "C'mon, Creed. Logan always said you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag. Let's see what you got." That way, Scott & Alex know who they're dealing with. "She's not likely to be able to take him down by herself. We've gotta move." Alex notes, finally reaching the stairwell, and after a quick glance upwards to see if any opposition is lying in wait, he begins to race up the stairs, albeit not without paying plenty of attention to his surroundings. Creed usually likes to work alone, but there's -supposed- to be armed opposition here...somewhere. Cyclops' mouth may just mold into a permanent frown at this point. "This isn't right," he mutters, more to himself than to Alex but he nods and watch their flank as he heads up backwards through the stairs. "We should be clear," he says, though the tone of his voice doesn't sound too confident. The POI, who just happens to be the current President Mitchell Hundred, flails about excitedly at the sound of a rescuer. Creed, for his part, seems less enthused, pushed back by the bolts but looking more annoyed than actually hurt. He snarls in the Nocturne's direction, unsheating his claws. "I prefer to let these do the talking, easier than trying to be all poetic, eh?" With that, he lunges forward without warning. TJ should have a hair of an advantage in the relexes department on him, so hopefully she was ready to jump if need be. Those digital project claws certainly look like they could hurt. "Logan's are bigger," she taunts Creed, apparently already either knowing her reflexes are superior, or that pissing Creed off is going to make it more probable for him to make a mistake, and keep his attention off of his current target. She springs forwards, pushing herself off Sabretooth's skull and doing a quick flip to land neatly behind him, and sending another Hex Bolt or two his way. "So," she continues to berate the feral, "If you let those do all your talking - I'm guessing you failed your Speech class?" Havok continues to race up the stairs, slowing only at points his instincts tell him might be ambush spots, but barring any other impediments he'll make his way to the fifth floor, but rather than burst through this one, he'll try the stealthy approach. Better to try to take Creed by surprise if they can. The feral clearly doesn't appreciate being taunted, giving off loud boisterous yells as he narrows his eyes. He bends down on his haunches, and looks like he's about to leap. Unfortunately for TJ, he still knows how to feint, and rather than leaping out at her, he simply slams down, causing the compromised floor beneath them to start to shake. Whichever direction she runs in is up to her, but the floor beneath her is clearly not long for this world. For the time being, Cyclops is following his brother's lead. "On your mark he whispers, standing a few steps to one side, hand on the side of his visor, ready to blast Creed to kingdom come if he has a clear line of sight. Nonlethal force, but Creed can take more than most. Alex takes in the situation, and right after Creed makes his "shuddering" smash, he gives the signal for Scott to blast him, hopefully clear out of the building and into the street below. They don't have time to mess around with him, and need to get...is that the President? OK, yeah, they need to get the President out of here. Should Creed manage to avoid Scott's blast, Alex stands ready to cut off his path-of-dodging with a tightly focused blast of his own. "Always overracting," complains Nocturne, who begins to move with flurried, and clinging feet to dance across the cracking and falling rooftop, headed towards the President. Another Hex Bolt is fired - this one right at Creed's feet, to make him tumble down sooner than anyone else. As the burst of speed brings her closer to the President, she calls to him, "I think we've overstayed our welcome." She's no idea who the guy is, just know Creed was after him. "How about you and me get off of here, and go somewhere with a better view?" A tap, to the communicator, "Don't stay too long. I think Creed's taking the building with him. I'm taking the hostage down the quick and easy way." "Girl's good," Cyclops admits to Alex just before he opens the door, opening fire to slow Creed down. The shot misses the feral as he's leaping after Nocturne, but thankfully Havok's back-up shot is more true. The blast pushes Creed out and through the window into the building across the way. Scott winces, but silently tells himself that its all about limits. "Alright, that should keep him busy for us to flee. I think we have less than five minutes," he says quickly before doubling back down the stairwell, taking stairs two at a time. "New to us, but not new to -this- I don't think." Alex notes of Scott's assessment. Once Creed is (at least for the moment) dealt with, Alex nods to Scott and adds towards the blue girl, "TJ, take the President and get him down the quick way. We'll meet you on the ground." Alex notes, as the safety of the hostage takes priority, of course. Then he's following behind Scott, albeit still keeping an eye out for trouble along the way out. "President?" queries Talia, into the comm. She looks at the man, "Well, sorry. I'm not AirForce One, but I hope I'll do. Make sure you hold on," she tells him, firmly. "We need to move, before the building goes." And the rooftop is certainly the first thing going. And Creed is down there, too. She turns her back to the man. "And I do mean hold on tight," she reiterates. Once she feels him secure on her back, she twists and drops straight down the side of the building. Her tail makes itself known to help balance her, and add sufficient ways to keep her descent controlled. Utilizing the tail for added strength - and control, as well as her well-positioned feet, and fingers, Talia swings and pushes down the building through the same sills, and window-ledges, or holds, she previously used to scale easily up it. She's a bit winded as she lands on the ground - she's not so used to extra burdens, like a full grown man. "Thank you for riding Nocturne airlines. Sorry, we were out of peanuts." Her yellowed eyes are fixed on the building. She taps the comm again, "You guys need backup?" If the countdown in his head is right, Cyclops is less worried about getting jumped by any VERY patient lurkers, and more about getting out as soon as possible. Things get hairy for a few steps, but any major debris is easily "swept" aside with a quick optic blast. As Cyclops gets out the door, he turns to see how far his brother is behind. "30 seconds until you're trapped under rubble!" he calls out, though confident enough that Alex can make the final sprint. He pushes his com. "We're fine, how's our friend doing?" he asks as he watche sfor any falling pieces of the ceiling to blast out of the air. Havok is a little bit behind Cyclops, but fortunately not 30 seconds behind. He does have to use a couple of brief plasma bursts to clear the path here and there, or to stop from getting clobbered in the head by falling debris, but he does finally make out out of the building with at least ten seconds to spare, though he's definitely coughing a bit from the smoke and has a bit of soot on his face, "Whew! That was a little closer than I'd have liked." Not sure if this is the 'end' of the program or not, TJ looks towards both Alex, and Scott then, "So. We escorting the big guy home? Or, we got some other parts to this mission that need clearing up?" She's grinning, wide. Apparently this is something she's inherited from her influences of Nightcrawler and Logan. She's having /fun/. In the Danger Room. With things exploding, and all the risks. Cyclops grins slightly at Havok. "What, all that surfing not kept your sprinting speed up?" He then glances towards Nocturne and at Hundred past her. "No," he said. "We're clear. Computer: Mission Cleared." Another click and whirl later, and the room fades back into the sparse chrome that is its standard shape. "Well done, team. That didn't...go exactly as I was expecting. But you both improvised very well." He glances back towards TJ, the remainder of his grin flatlining. Serious Scott. "Why didn't you tell me about your possession ability?" Apparently he had that one queued up for when they were out of danger. "Most of my running isn't done in smoke-filled stairwells." Alex notes sardonically, "-You're- not even that crazy." He chides, watching the program fade, though he does look somewhere between curious and mildly worried when Scott notes that it didn't go as he had planned. That...shouldn't be the case in the Danger Room if he programmed the scenario. Not that there aren't variables, but the absence of armed opposition is somewhat telling. When Scott gives his question to Talia, Alex remains silent for the time being. He can guess as to why, but he's not going to speak for her.$e "The same reason I didn't tell Jean," replies Talia, her own smile fading. She crosses her arms, defensively, "Or anyone else, besides Xavier. You're lucky, that he seems to trust you. Otherwise, you still wouldn't know." Apparently the question has hit a nerve, and TJ isn't -quite- as soft spoken as her father, in such bravado. That clearly isn't the answer that Scott wanted to hear. "We should know," he says, rather bluntly. "If you're going to stay here, we need to know things like that. You're certainly allowed secrets, but what if your intentions weren't as pure? What if you were trying to take over me or Dr. Grey?" He shakes his head slightly before storming off, not waiting for an answer for those questions. "Session dismissed, I need to look over that program and see where things got hinky." "Hey, lay off, Scott. She -did- tell us. It might not have been immediate enough for your liking but you can't expect her to just instantly trust everyone here." Alex pipes up in Talia's defense, before shaking his head and rolling his eyes slightly as Scott abruptly excuses himself. He turns his gaze towards Talia, his expression sheepish, "Sorry...did I mention Scott's a little tightly wound sometimes?" Not that Alex is immune to that particular quirk. Okay, -that- struck even more of a nerve. It becomes even more apparent that while TJ has the soft heart of her father, she has her own sense of self, and ways to express it. She stalks - yes, stalks, right up to Scott, unafraid of him, looking him directly, and unafraid, in his eyes. "And what if you were leading the Brotherhood, and trying to destroy my family, and everything that I loved in your urgency to make mutants the supreme race because we didn't like what you had to sell?" She asks, in a cold voice. "What if I had a reason to think you might trying to be to destroy the X-Men from within, including my dad?" She jabs a finger in Scott's chest, "And one more thing." Yeah. It would appear Scott pushed a few buttons he probably shouldn't have. "You -don't- get to tell me. -Ever-. To use that on anyone." For whatever reason, Alex's words seem to fall on deaf ears as Scott continues to storm out of the room. He silently makes a note to talk to his brother about mouthing off to hin in front of recruits. But then, TJ makes it much harder to ignore. Slowing to a halt, he stands there and lets her get everything she has to say out, staring down at her evenly, the reflective glare of his visor letting her get a good look at how she looks ranting at him. "I'm the field leader of this team," he says, once she's done. "If you had bad experiences with another version of me, or multiple versions of me, that's one thing. But ask anyone you trust-Logan, Dr. Grey, my "cute" brother, anyone-and they will tell you the same thing about the version of SCott Summers that stands before." Pause, for dramatic effect. "There is nothing I care about more than what this school stands for. I want to trust you, Ms. Wagner. And the fact that you did come clean helps me with that. But know that if there is anything, and I mean anything, else that I should know right now, then I expect to hear it immediately. Otherwise, I will have zero reason to keep trusting you." "Wait...what?" OK, that torrent of strangeness that Talia just brought to the table really does take a couple of seconds for Alex to parse, but as his words seem to be falling on deaf ears anyway, he doesn't really add much to the conversation at this point. Talia seems to be quite intent on defending herself, and Scott is...being Scott. He does move closer to the pair, ready to intervene if necessary, though he's really not sure who the underdog in the scenario might be. Guess just /who/ Talia might've had for an influence in lessons on standing up for herself, or her positions? Yeah. You could almost put a little holographic Logan right over Talia. "I already -came- clean, with Xavier," she tells Scott. She smirks. Trump card. "Maybe he didn't think you needed to be told, if you had to find out from me. Maybe he respected my privacy, because it's -not- something I enjoy doing." Despite how she might see herself in the reflective lens, she still doesn't back down. "Maybe you just need to get over yourself, and trust Xavier's judgement, since he's given me leave to be here. And I think he'd know if I were a spy. Same as you." The Xavier Card was a good one to play, and Scott's agressive stance softens a bit at it. And for a few moments he seems lost for words, though his expression remain stone-cold. "The Professor respects everyones privacy," he finally admits, perhaps a bit more softly than he means to. "I will trust his judgement and assesment of your intent. Now if you'll excuse me," he says, moving to pass by the firey elf. "I have some work to do." Okay, so he didn't say 'sorry,' but that is firmly in the win column for TJ. Alex heaves a bit of a sigh, shaking his head ruefully once more. He's not going to try to stop Scott from leaving, though he -does- move to try to place a hand on Talia's shoulder and ask her, "You OK?" Oddly enough, the touch is one of the first Talia's recieved from someone else that she, herself, didn't initiate. And she leans into it, almost needfully though she is still glaring at Scott some, she doesn't press the issue anymore, perceiving she's won the arguement. And, made her point. She nods, "Fine." A grin is managed, shortly thereafter. "So. Did you have fun?" "Fun?" Alex glances towards the Danger Room, smirking a touch, "For some reason I've almost always associated this place with "work" more than "fun."" He shrugs, grinning a touch, "But as far as it goes, yeah...it went a lot better than some of the sessions I've had in here, but I think something got messed up in the program. Which is probably another reason Scott got uptight." He adds, "He gets really hard on himself when he thinks he might have messed something up. Something he and I tend to have in common, I hesitate to add..." He gives Talia's shoulder a brief, gentle squeeze then releases it, "What about you? You know...aside from the end there." "Are you kidding? Uncle Logan used to design my simulations, or my dad. Don't think Scott could ever be harder on me than those two were," she suggests with a lopsided grin. "Guess I've, personally, never thought of any of this as work. It's usually either fun, or - something that needs to be done, because it's the right thing to do. Can't say as I'm a fan of risking my life out there all the time, but - yeah. It's something that does a lot of good." "Yeah...I guess you're right. At least about the doing good part. -That- part I like. For a long time though, I kind of resisted the idea of being an X-Man. Wanted a normal life. I guess pretty much all of us go through it, but I think I was a little more off a butthead about it than most." He shrugs, then smiles a touch, "But I do know what it's like to have a power you don't really want to use." "Most of the people I've used it on," comments TJ, now, settled and calmer, "Were those that were going to - committ horrendous acts. Or, the followers of such people. And, I used their bodies to prevent the deaths of thousands." She shakes her head, "But. I am afraid to use it too lightly. For - obvious reasons." Then, "Man. I need to get out of this uniform. Change. How about you?" "Ehn, I was figuring I could just wear this around the rest of the day for no particular reason." Alex jokes, smiling once more, "Yeah, probably should clean up. See you upstairs in a bit?" "Sure," agrees TJ, warmly. "Thanks." And, with that, the spry young woman saunters out of the Danger Room, to the women's lockers, to change back into her more familiar clothing. Category:Logs